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2026 Week 5 Oklahoma State Cowboys Rankings

Main Poll Voters

User Rank Reason
jalexjsmithj 4 I know the shit will be coming since it’s my flair. But the point here, is that in a vacuum an elite win and a bad loss is worth more than elite loss. And that’s the battle of OSU v OSU here. Now, the pushback here is, yeah but with the eye test, Ohio state is better duh. And I’m sorry, but that Oklahoma State win over Oregon tells the story of a team that has tier 1 upside. They functionally crushed Oregon, who only kept it close with 14 points off turnovers and outgained them by more than 300 yards. WV was a huge win in a hostile environment and it was done by rotating through 12 (12!) defensive linemen, the kind of depth in the trenches Big 12 hyflying offenses have always missesd Mesemaker is playing QB like the type of difference maker who can make up the difference of many other talent gaps.
ShogunAshoka 6
Stoneador 6
Inkblot9 10
T-Thugs 10 Oklahoma State is tricky to rank. They've got a pretty bad loss to Tulsa, but they have two really nice wins over Oregon (3-1, beat USC) and West Virginia (3-1, beat Virginia)
AJ_CC 12
bretticus733 12
HieloLuz 12 I had a very hard time deciding on Oklahoma State. That loss to Tulsa |5| looks bad, and I generally won't rank a team with a loss that bad until much later in the season. But Oregon was getting ranked for sure, and with so few data points to go off of, I decided for now that they are in the same tier with Oregon and the other teams with a loss but a quality win, and thus here they are. Oklahoma State gets the honor of the first ranked team with a loss this year for me.
AlexanderComet 14
fourpinz8 14
Hey_Its_Roomie 14
Staind075 14
BearsAreGreat1 15
BorisNumber1 15
CFBHurts 15
CptCheese 15
dabul-master 15
deadtofall12 15
frumious88 15
GeauxTri 15
jrich960608 15 This is a real head scratcher. You just beat WVU who was red hot, you beat Oregon, you look great, yet you lost to Tulsa, who just got thumped by ARKANSAS! College football you are the best sport in the world (duh). Oklahoma State has the potential to put together an incredible season, imagine if the Tulsa game went the other way, they’d be top 10!
mcdsmaster8824 15
aggiebruin27 16
corundum9 16
elnino550 16 Backed up their massive win against Oregon (Which looks even better after they beat USC) with a win in West Virginia whom I had ranked last week. The Tulsa loss prevents them from being the highest ranked B12 side but this team is legit.
IceColdDrPepper_Here 16
jjjoebox 16
noahthearc 16
noodlethebear 16
PattyKane16 16
redwave2505 16
ryseing 16
SufferingfOrLife 16
Terminal_BAS 16
Tornadohunter24 16 [3-1, 1-0 Big 12] (+9) | SOR: #32 | Notable Results: L 10-24 @ #DO Tulsa [3-1], W 39-31 vs #17 Oregon [3-1], W 41-24 @ #DO West Virginia [3-1] |

The Oklahoma State Mean Green, I mean Cowboys, are an interesting team to rank; a depressing road loss to Tulsa (who themselves just got run over by the otherwise-stagnant Razorbacks) but a cathartic win against the Ducks and a triumph on the road in Morgantown has them jumping up the rankings, even with a lackluster SOR. The team is flawed, sure, but Drew Mestemaker might be the best quarterback in the country on his day, and every other part of the team has facilitated that high-flying offense to drive them to wins. Halftime adjustments have also been fantastic from new HC Eric Morris and Oklahoma State returns to the top 20 as a result.
UNC_Samurai 16
Acm0028 17
Bank_Gothic 17 It was hard to know what to do with the Pokes. The loss to Tulsa is a real head scratcher, especially in light of Tulsa getting hammered by Arkansas. This ranking has a lot to do with what I think about Oregon and my refusal to rank OSU below Oregon when they have the same record and OSU holds the head-to-head. But it's also about OSU's dominant win over a WVU team that I think is pretty solid.
boxbeat 17
Corgi_Koala 17
e8odie 17
GenialGiant 17
grey_pilgrim_ 17
grtgbln 17
Jakesnake42 17 That Tulsa loss is gonna look stranger by the week isn't it. Don't like the loss but wins over Oregon and WVU sure make it easier to swallow. Last Week: #19
JBonkies 17
jrluhn 17
Klaassy23 17
Maladroit44 17
OKgolfer 17
Pure_Protein_Machine 17
Rakarei 17
RollWarTideEagle 17
SCsprinter13 17
sickmemes48 17
sroach91 17
stripes361 17
TheReformedBadger 17
thomasosu 17
WarEagle9 17
AlphaH4wk 18
ALStark69 18 NR; had to rank them above Oregon, they look good right now
Blazeth 18
Buckeyes2010 18
budget_um 18 Rank the Pokes! Smashed the Mountaineers
Casaiir 18
ChemicalOle 18
chweris 18
DavoinShower-handle 18
digdat0 18 18. Oklahoma State — Score: 0.158 | Results: 0.924, SOS Rank: #47, Quality: 0.141, Recency: 0.000 | T10W: 0, T25W: 1, T50W: 2, Off Rk: #37, Def Rk: #54
Euphoric_Relative_13 18
ikindalikelemons 18
jmac_21 18
JustinMSU21 18
KansasEF5Tornado 18
Lefunnymaymays4lief 18 (+5) Pokes have officially recovered completely from the Tulsa aberration with two extremely impressive P4 wins following that disaster. Seriously flipped on the afterburners in the 2nd half vs. WVU. Mestemaker is a certified dealer, and Hawkins is great as well despite the absurd volume
Our-Gardian-Angel 18
RiffRamBahZoo 18
scronko 18
seaotter2 18
SIMBONEGTP 18
srs_house 18
True_Ad5324 18 Still the weirdest team
xX_GIGA_MAN_Xx 18 (NEW)
Xy13 18 [4-0] (41-24 W @ WVU)
2 P4 Wins
---
You know, if they hadn't lost to Tulsa they'd be top 10. Should I have them 12 ahead of Oregon? Maybe. I dunno.
Zloggt 18 I've said it before, and I'll say it again - they could very well be a Top 10-15 team had they not lost to Tulsa (then again...who knows if they would beat Oregon without that extra motivation)!
a_bit_of_a_misnomer_ 19
Ch-i-ef 19 Tulsa be something man
conchobor 19
Conn3er 19
DarkLegend64 19
DisraeliEers 19
HelioOne 19
joebob431 19
Justanother_0 19
monkeymatt1836 19
nbingham196 19
nemoran 19
Polarbear1914 19
smartkeg 19
soonerfreak 19
SpadeRyker 19
spsellers 19
SteemieRayVaughn 19
TaylorLeprechaun 19 NR
titansfan174 19
TossedRightOut 19
TouchdownHeroes 19
52hoova 20
BananaBouquet 20
BendrickLamar19 20 😁
CambodianDrywall 20
cinciforthewin 20
diehardcubforever 20
dschinghiskhan 20
EpicSchwinn 20
frone 20
Lex_Ludorum 20
mellolizard 20
MemeofMemeJTG999999 20 (3-1) (was unranked)
W: 41-24 @ #29 West Virginia (3-1)
Next Week: Bye
Projected Bowl: Alamo Bowl vs Utah
nin478 20
RedBarracuda25 20
samspopguy 20
Sometimeswelose 20
SwissArmyScythe 20 +4
TheNSAAgent777 20
Aidanj927 21
BallSoHerd 21
brucewaynewins 21
Cecil_Hardboner 21
ChaseTheFalcon 21
Chris-P-Creme 21
Colton3690 21
cornholesurfer 21
dukemetoo 21
HideNZeke 21 Let's just pretend Tulsa didn't happen
IAmAChemicalEngineer 21
JustAManAndHisLaptop 21
Luigiatl 21
malowry0124 21
Striker743 21 NR
TDenverFan 21
texas2089 21
TheUltimate721 21 It's really hard to deny Drew Mestemaker's talent, and a win to open up Big 12 play is huge.
tjstanley 21
Versigot 21 Inexplicable loss to Tulsa still on the resume. The win against Oregon is less impressive when you know Oregon were tipping plays (fair play on OKST for catching it though). Still an objectively good football team.
VerySeriousBanana 21
BuckeyeForLife95 22 (0.75+0.56) X (37.25/19.75) X (548.25/317.25) = 4.28
Cassiyus 22
CPiGuy2728 22
Drexlore 22
dubscurry30 22 NR
jimbobbypaul 22
jthomas694 22
MrTheSpork 22
PeteyNice 22
pileatedloon 22
redrumsoxLoL 22 It is tough to judge the Cowboys. They have really high-highs in beating Oregon and West Virginia but they lost to Tulsa to start the season. If they can keep winning that Tulsa loss may be completely forgotten by season's end as growing pains in a tune up game.
RheagarTargaryen 22
romulusjsp 22
sirvalkyerie 22
StFuzzySlippers 22 Losing to Tulsa is still nasty work, as the hapless Hogs demonstrated this weekend. But maybe it was just week 1 jitters? At any rate, they cleanly beat the Ducks, who in turn proved that they are still respectable by knocking off @USC, so let's see how far they can go.
TolkienFan71 22
TopGoose 22
Zef_Apollo 22
_fastball 23
Bill3ffinMurray 23
bwburke94 23 +7.762939 (LW: #1)
djowen68 23
douchebagjack 23 Best 3 Wins: Oregon, West Virginia, Murray State
Loss: Tulsa

Oklahoma State beat Oregon and lost to Tulsa. Oregon/WV is a better resume than OKST/SHST, but Tulsa wins on h2h
ewolfy13 23
fredmerc111 23
jonstark19 23
retnuh101 23
T-nawtical 23
tdeff19 23
udubdavid 23
Xtremeloco 23
CharlemagneOfTheUSA 24
Daigotsu 24
G-Aardvark 24
GoBlueScrewOSU7 24
SlaminSammons 24
Corporal_Hicks 25
DampFrijoles 25
DarthYoda2594 25
GatorBolt 25 25 due to the Tulsa loss but the Oregon and now WVU wins look really good.
Helifino 25
JamoRedhead 25
Longvols 25
ToeInDigDeep 25

Provisional Poll Voters

User Rank Reason
CallMeTheKing 6
The_Stratman 7
1Subject 8
Rhizical 8
GenuineBoss 9
mr_longfellow_deeds 12
fm22fnam 13 +UNR
Lucaball3r 14
AliceisStoned 15
Blazemaster77 15
kevinsdomain 15
owl-bears 15
538allspelledout 16
ArlyntheAwesome 16 that Oregon win is only gonna look better as the season goes on, if the XII schedule wasn't preset to make 3 12-0 teams that aren't OkSt I'd have grandiose thoughts of the playoffs for them
bigian52 16
d1sportsball 16 Refuse to rank Tulsa ahead of Ok St despite H2H because Tulsa lost to the equivalent to a P4 FCS team
DesignerClub1887 16
jibberishdhyukl 16
Klightgrove 16
NA_Faker 16
National-Sundae9427 16
NC_Pineapple 16
noah_divine 16
S3G 16
70277027 17
BoilerUp28 17
bolts_win_again 17
bruhstevenson 17
dawgfan24348 17
divey043 17
DownshiftGD 17
Ethanol-Muffins 17
irishspring4521 17
isrealball 17
LonghornInNebraska 17
MotherQuocer 17
New_Prior2253 17
SaguaroCactus19 17
thehornedlamb 17
Yelich04 17 NR (The Oregon win was not an aberration, they backed it up with a great West Virginia win, so they earn their way up into the rankings.)
_Junk_Rat_ 18
_THE__BOULDER_ 18 OKST is up to 3-1 with notable wins over Oregon and WVU and a notable loss to Tulsa (who just got spanked by Arkansas). Prior to this past weekend, it was very hard to figure out what to do with them but now, with the win over WVU, I'm starting to believe. Drew Mestemaker threw 20/27 for 389 yards, 3TD, and 1INT. Caleb Hawkins ran for 180 yards and a touchdown on 31 carries. Wyatt Young had 8 receptions for 192 yards and 1TD. Young did also have a fumble but it was recovered by his fellow WR in Chris Barnes. The defense came away with 1INT and 3TODs which spanned the end of the 3rd and into the 4th quarter. This was, all things considered, a very good game from OKST over what I consider to be a WVU team that is currently somewhere between decent and good. OKST got ahead and slammed the door behind them, which is what you want to see out of your program. With two notable wins, combined with other teams moving down or out, I have decided to move OKST into the top 25 - and what a jump they made - at number 18. The Tulsa blunder is still a blunder, but OKST is trending in the correct direction and now has more data for me to be able to really start forming an opinion about them. I look forward to seeing OKST keep this consistency up, if they can, and seeing how they do against UCF this week and Houston the week after.
GrimmacingGrinny 18
Key_Solution_4076 18
Kyrosiv 18
LightningDusty 18 ↑5
logace444444444 18
m3owzika 18 A statement win against a conference opponent that's looked good. Their loss to Tulsa is making their placement a lot harder to calculate, but if they keep this up for the rest of the season then it won't even matter
MWiatrak2077 18
newSomberMan 18
Piptit 18
Small_Company_5697 18
SomerandomIDFBfan 18
tbraptors 18
ValarMorghulis_17 18
bigred91224 19
Dawg-Bite 19
KansasChaser2021 19
Milflover69cbb 19 Great win this weekend and week one is looking like a fluke, also the Oregon win looks much better now
Mission_Pay_3373 19
PersianGuitarist 19
Spazzatack 19
SportsCat4 19
Star_Wars_Sith 19
Tch267702 19
thatoneguyD13 19 Tier 4. Tulsa loss looks bad, but Oregon and WVU wins look good.
69nicer 20
beckett929 20
idnttcrisis 20
jackmc04 20 (NR)
KevinDoesSports 20 Beat Oregon and West Virginia who was a fringe Top 25 school, OSU belongs here.
loneSTAR_06 20
Perryapsis 20
RJTrey 20
solarsnail6 20
WBLwiffleball 20
Flaky_Bit6733 21
gonshpreds1 21
Hastronaut 21
myworld3 21
NebraskaPlainsman 21
NoOutdoorSoup 21
OG_Felwinter 21
SignificanceFirm2398 21
HHunko13 22
JackWK_Gaming 22
Kareem89086 22
Minnesnowtaaa 22
MyAngelMiraidon 22 HM -> NEW - Beat ranked (according to me) West Virginia. Week 1 is increasingly becoming less explainable
NNul 22
Real-Plant-5722 22 Finally seeing some offense.
Sflabuckeye13 22
Underground_Bread 22
AoA_nB1 23 2025 north texas > 2025 iowa state
hiiightide 23
JJones927 23
jwrtf 23
Noahsince2002 23
TheBeekman8 23
buccaneerboy22 24
Crelc3 24
Protoco2 24
Select-Edge-3262 24 +16 (NR)
SpectralHydra 24
FindGreatness23 25
FuzzyDunlop911 25
Midnight-Mustang 25
Salmon-Dude 25
Blue = Human
Red = Computer
Green = Hybrid

Bold = before the AP poll was published
Normal = after the AP poll was published

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